Complain all you want about Hillary’s campaign but if not for the private email bullshit that the Times and others got a strange hard-on for she’d be president right now. Well…..

Presidential son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has corresponded with other administration officials about White House matters through a private email account set up during the transition last December, part of a larger pattern of Trump administration aides using personal email accounts for government business.

Presidential son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has corresponded with other administration officials about White House matters through a private email account set up during the transition last December, part of a larger pattern of Trump administration aides using personal email accounts for government business.

Do what we say, not what we do.
People like the drumpfs would freak out completely if we did what they do instead of what they say we should. It’s wrong for us, because it’s OK for them.
Of course he uses a private email server. He’s allowed because of who he thinks he is, rather than the little fucking twerp that he actually is. The old time saying is “He thinks his shit doesn’t stink.” What he doesn’t understand is everything about him stinks because he’s full of shit.

@germy: Here’s a question: Have Lichtblau; Pinch, Baquet et al. given an explanation for that late-October “nothing to see here” load of horseshit? Literally the only consolation is that his ouster from CNN might have killed Eric’s career.

It’s football Sunday, and I have a pit in my stomach, and a sickening sense of deja vu. Who knows what the day will bring?

I do know the source of my disquiet. It is the stench of bigotry as a
demagogue stirs the potent cauldron of racial division. I want to say,
this is so unnecessary. We have so many other things we should be
worrying about. But of course now this is real, and it must be called
out. This is an age when no one can be neutral. To remain silent in the face of race-baiting is to be complicit. And I have seen the cost of complicity. It is ugly.

On Friday night, and then in a chain of tweets (what else) President
Trump targeted African American athletes for provocation and ridicule.
He has called into question their Americanness, as he called into
question the Americanness of his predecessor President Obama. Perhaps what is saddest about this moral cowardice is that Mr. Trump may derive some political gain from these attacks amongst his supporters, but he fails in the test of leadership. Big time. For a President to be doing this – pouring gasoline on the embers of racial resentment – is really unspeakable. Instead of trying to reduce the potentially explosive emotions about race, he is trying to exacerbate them for his own gain.

I have seen this game plan before. My mind is transported across the decades. I hear the adjective “uppity”, and much worse. I see the mouths of authority curl with disdain and mutter “what do you think you’re doin’, boy?” – the last word spit out in disgust.

I feel time click into rewind, to when African Americans weren’t thought of as being “smart” enough to play quarterback, to when there was a “gentlemen’s agreement” amongst college basketball coaches to the total number of African American players on the court. Backwards still to all-white teams, and all-white leagues. I remember Jackie Robinson, and a time before someone of his skin color dared to think he could earn a living
as an athlete in the United States.

I know this history. And so does Donald Trump. He understands how salient the trope of the “angry black man” is. It was said of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other now-revered leaders of the civil rights struggle. It is so ingrained in our history that it can become resonant even in those who say they aren’t bigoted. So Mr. Trump plucks at it. He knows that he can use the American flag as a symbol of division and not unity. So he sows that thought.

I grant that there are many who are offended by players
taking a knee during the National Anthem. That is their right, as it is
the right of those who protest to have their speech protected. This is how we discuss our differences peacefully in a democracy. But calling out these players as S.O.B.s (but using the actual profane words) who should be fired, that’s a pointed attack on our Constitutional rights.
And it is summoning the dark shadows of centuries of racial
stereotyping. Let’s just say I have seen plenty of white S.O.B.s in
sports who have been given awards rather than pink slips.

President Trump is not trying to win over the majority of the American people. He wants to animate his base and bask in its approval. Will his supporters in Congress continue to stand by in tell-tale silence? Will his donors, including some of the owners of professional sports teams?

We are not a nation of majority bigots. The strident ranks of the
intolerant can be overwhelmed by enough people agreeing that this is not who we are, or who we want to be. Mr. Trump’s cheers can be drowned out by a chorus of justice.

And one final thought, we have seen these distractions before. As Mr. Trump dominates the news cycle over race, as he issues bellicose threats to North Korea, one wonders what bombshells may be brewing in the Russia investigation, which seems to be
gaining speed and scope.

You held a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton‍ during the campaign, and she’s on her book tour right now. Do you feel like history will look kindly on Hillary Clinton? This election seemed, in many ways, like a referendum on women.

I think it was. Here’s what I see from Hillary. Hillary, for years and years and years, has been the presumptive nominee, and quite honestly, she was incredibly qualified for the job. But being qualified for the job does not necessarily mean you’re the right person to be president. Here’s what I mean. She was more qualified than even her husband was when he was elected president, but she’s not as good at communicating things. That’s simply true. When she got up and gave a speech, it didn’t soar. Now, that doesn’t mean that she wouldn’t have done a great job as president, and I supported her because by the time we did the fundraiser the primary was over at that point and it was time to get on with picking someone to move forward, and she was the right person to side with.
It was frustrating because I never saw her elevate her game. I never saw it. And I had a lot of liberal friends who were like, “She’s not good at this.” And I see that, and I understand it. I also think, though, that if it was a guy it wouldn’t have been so polarizing. I think the fact that she’s a woman made it a much harder uphill battle. They’ve had the “Arkansas Project” where for twenty-five years the Clintons have been accused of murdering Vince Foster and accused of tons of stuff, so I thought it was a raw deal. I think that she wasn’t particularly good at articulating the things that she wanted to do, and unfortunately we live at a time right now where articulating what you want to do is more potent in the electorate than the other way around, obviously, when Trump only said he was going to “Make America Great Again.” Don’t you think the next Democrat who runs should just run with a blue hat that says, “Make America Great Again?”

Trump supporters are flocking to the official video for Elton John’s “Rocket Man” song, to applaud Trump’s use of the nickname for Kim Jong-un in tweets and on the floor of the United Nations General Assembly.

However, the video itself is either confusing them, enraging them, or being completely misunderstood by them.

Turns out the video, the winner of a competition judged by songwriters Elton John and Bernie Taupin, is by Stephen McNally and Iranian filmmaker Majid Adin, who traveled through Europe during the 2015 refugee crisis. It’s a stunning and heartbreaking animation that reimagines the song as a metaphor for the plight of immigrants and refugees, a group for which Trump and his supporters have shown only antipathy.

Most YouTube comments (but don’t read them — never read YouTube comments; I did so you wouldn’t have to) from Trump supporters seem either oblivious to the fact that they’re cheering a pro-refugee video, or furious that they were tricked into watching something that actually has sympathy and heart.

Maybe Clooney will eat his words as Mueller files his charges. Also, I suspect Hillary did win, for all her being bad at speechifying. I think Trump is an illegitimate president, and I would love it if Mueller’s investigators starting finding evidence of that as they pull threads.

The press fucking hates Hillary Clinton. Full stop. What the NY Times did was the worst thing I’ve EVER seen them do (fuck Dean Baquet and Pinch and their stable of crackpot writers). Judith Miller and Jayson Blair vs. destroying the Democratic candidate when you have a fascist aiming for the office, with unlimited free publicity.

Fuck the fucking NY Times. They gave cover to those who wanted to assassinate Clinton, electorally.

@Baud:
I think she is better than Ronnie or Bill. Because she doesn’t focus on soaring words or dramatics. She talks about real issues. She doesn’t sound symbolic, she sounds real. President Obama can soar but he doesn’t try to be dramatic, he also talked about real issues, their effects and problems. She told us what we needed to hear, not what we thought we wanted to hear. I wasn’t interviewing for the president of the toastmasters, I was interviewing for the president of my country. I want to know real issues, not soaring platitudes and dramatics or just plain bullshit.

Can anyone think of any female politician who is a charismatic speaker in a large stadium? The only name I can come up with is Michelle Obama. Literally that’s it. Am I missing someone obvious? Elizabeth Warren ad Nancy Pelosi are not good at addressing crowds. I’ve seen Kamala Harris in person and can confirm that she’s no good at it either. Sarah Palin had a million and one problems modulating her voice. I mention all these names because I fear that almost every female politician will be criticized for being a poor speaker. And, really, was Trump any good at this or did he just give his crowds license to hate?

I saw Katy Tur try to explain the focus on emails. Can’t remember where I saw this. In effect, she said emails was the only flaw w Clinton so they talked about it. Trump had so many scandals and they were constantly changing so they didn’t have an easy handle and nothing got covered in depth. In effect, Trump used the Gish Gallop on his scandals.

@Baud: right but bundled in my answer is that she doesn’t care either. And I agree that Clooney’s two paragraphs sucked, though I was more galled by his (probably correct) assumption that he had to preemptively defend himself for supporting her in the primary.

Why the fuck would you want to be “nice”?
The racist, fascist. mouth breathing assholes certainly aren’t.
There’s nothing “nice” about being satisfied because you have a coat hanger and the ni[clang!] under the bridge with you, doesn’t .

Difficult to think of a better strategic move for us than Trump digging in and then continuing to keep digging in against sports stars.

Makes the racism crystal clear, even to dim bulbs; keeps him away from health care, North Korea, tax goodies for billionaires. Get it to where only hockey teams, Klan members, and process servers will set foot in the White House.

@Baud:
But that’s exactly the point. I don’t care that speeches move people, drumpf moved people (in the wrong fucking direction of course), when I interview someone for a job, I don’t want to hear fire and bullshit, I want to hear what they know, what they plan to do with the job, how will they be the best whatever that I’m hiring. I’m not saying Bill was bad, but he goes for soaring, almost like he didn’t believe it. Ronnie went for the dramatic, the flair because that was Ronnie. If you aren’t paying attention then soaring/dramatic are fine. But that is not leadership, that’s bullshit. I’ve met a few good leaders in my time and every one of them gave me competence not flair, not bullshit. That is a big tell that they can lead, not that they can stand on a street corner and ask someone else watching a parade, “Where are they going, those are my people, I must find out where they are going, so I can lead them.”
Clinton gave us competence. That is far, far more important than flair, and soaring bullshit.

@tobie:
It’s how you are conditioned to listen, what you expect. We’ve heard men speak for ever. Few women have every had the chance to speak to a country in this fashion at least in the US. I’d expect them to have a different voice, because most of them do.
63 million people thought she sounded just fine. Some of us thought she sounded better than that.

@Major Major Major Major: because its irrelevant to her loss. Men win the presidency all the time while having flaws or making mistakes. Its wring to attribute HRC’s loss to any one thing when misogyny, russians, and voter suppression played a much more important role.

@Ruckus: it is funny how Clooney started off talking about sexist double standards and then kinda went straight into one. What exemplars of soaring political rhetoric from American women do we even have? Michelle Obama, Ann Richards?

ETA ‘soaring’ in the sense that’s been established by male politicians

@Baud:
Well I’ve got that gong for me at least.
Tried all my life to be the better person, not every minute of every day, for fucks sakes what do you think I am, perfect? First time I ever actually succeeded.

Hillary Clinton makes clear that she has a lot to answer for. So does James Comey. So does Facebook. So does the public. So down a long list. (What I, personally, got most egregiously wrong: my announcement in mid-2015 that no one as unqualified as Trump could possibly win. I stopped making predictions after that.)

But the press is among the groups that messed this up, badly, in particular through the relentless push in New York Times coverage that made “but, her emails!” a rueful post-campaign meme. With this book, Hillary Clinton has gone a considerable distance toward facing her responsibility for the current state of the country. Before any news organization tells her to pipe down or stop explaining herself, I’d like to see them be as honest about their own responsibility.

Naw, Obama! He said something in his election night speech in 2008 about how “we” were going to fight to stop the oceans from rising. The NYT and co. had that as Obama saying he would stop the oceans from rising, before you could turn around. It was something like Al Gore inventing the internet.

@Ladyraxterinok: If you can find a link to the backstory WRT the FTF NYT, I would read it.

I kinda agree with JR in WV though. The NYT’s political coverage has gotten so bizarre — over the past 18 months — that I wonder if there’s more behind the scenes. The new Mexican gazillionaire owner insisting on a manner of coverage. Or actual blackmail.

Can this all be merely Executive Editor Dean Bacquet? I don’t think so. But their publisher could be crazy ass.

I keep my NYT sub, but have been thinking of asking them for a 50% discount since I don’t read the political coverage anymore.

@Elizabelle:
I’m going to give this a vote for understatement of the year.
But really what should we expect? When all we had was newspapers, they all had a political point of view and gave us information that we couldn’t easily refute. That is vastly different now that electronics have become so entrenched in our lives. We can almost instantly share our thoughts and BS with people around the world, like we are here. We can watch a speech and hear and see what happened. Who was it the other day who said he watched a speech and less than 5 minutes later a TV person said the words had been exactly the opposite to what he’d just watched? Our problem is that people expect news and “analysis” to be truthful. It never has been, why should it be that now?

Focusing on this is essentially chastising her for not being more extraordinary.

It’s also effectively crediting the RWNM for distorting everything she said, because that’s the main reason her speeches didn’t come off well. They were fine to the people who listened to them in real time, but they weren’t nearly as good to people who only heard the distorted, out of context snippets that were most of what wound up in the media.

That was me, and I was talking about Andrea Mitchell Greenspan covering the DEmocratic National Convention. She lied every time her mouth was moving. About things I had just watched.

It was like she forgot the people at home were able to hear the speakers, to watch the stage, themselves, and thought she could define reality to slant conservative all by herself.

It was also despicable, and I haven’t watched more than a couple of minutes of NBS news since. If they were to fire her for cause, I would consider watching them, if there was no other broadcast news available.

I wish I could remember where I saw this on twitter, but the gist was:

Trump tweeted 10 times about the NFL0 times about Puerto Rico (where 3.5 million US citizens lack power)

I have 2 friends who live here and I officiated their US wedding; their families there have neither water nor power. And some of them had to be rescued from severely flooded houses. But the DOTUS can only bitch about NFL players protesting human rights violation. He should be sending US groups to help, but he’s in a twitter spat with the NFL, which has some players who’ve disrespected him.

@germy: And they never, ever will have to worry about health insurance. Neither do the Republican jamokes in Congress or their families. They all can be monsters to their heart’s content, and they and theirs will never go wanting or have to make impossible decisions.

He doesn’t know where Puerto Rico is, or that the people who live there are US citizens, or that anything has happened to them. They are non-entities to him, as are the millions of people (including tens of thousands of American military and civilians) who will be wiped out by war on the Korean peninsula.

@J R in WV: exactly right. I had cut the cord months earlier mainly because of MSNBC and their BS. I was on vacation during the convention with some good Massachusetts liberals and we watched too much.

@J R in WV:
Thanks.
I don’t watch TV at all, because really, why? It’s like buying the NYT, it’s available here, or I could read it online but why bother, why give them a dime. It’s crap, not even worth free electrons. I’m not less informed but less misinformed.

A good point here. Why don’t we hear about the USN sending ships to Puerto Rico, the Air Force sending in C-130s loaded with generator sets, MREs and bottled water, or even better, water purification kits, those filters that take out even virii along with bacteria. We’re the greatest country on Earth, why are our people still suffering alone on their tropical island, once a paradise, now a prison???

FEMA doesn’t work there? The Military doesn’t sail there, the Air Force doesn’t fly there? There should be a constant stream of ships and aircraft landing there, the first ones with high-water trucks and heavy equipment, followed by kitchens, medical units, clothing, tools, supplies, tents and bunks, everything.

Or has all that equipment been wasted in Iraq and other such foreign wastelands? Do we not do that in the military any more, is that all on “contractors” in todays Military????

I’ve noted her a few times that Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger — the current publisher, and son of Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger (who had a bit more integrity than his asshole son) — became publisher in 1992. Interestingly enough, the FTFNYT seemed to decide, in 1992, that Bill Clinton was not worthy of the office to which he would be elected. It seems that the FTFNYT also decided that Hillary was also corrupt (because they were both involved in Whitewater, and apparently they had James McDougal murdered, and Vince Foster and Jesus and the Smurfs and arglebargle).

Pinch is still the publisher, and the FTFNYT is still treating Hillary like she’s the most evillest corruptest evillest murderousest evillest woman EVAH!!! Did I mention evil?

And the Editor gets his/her marching orders from the publisher, I believe. (Although the journalists here might tell me I’m wrong, in which case my apologies for th ebad assumption.)

@J R in WV: Seems to be very hard to get news about relief efforts, including from PR itself. Saw a story today (can’t recall where) that gave some details about the kinds of assistance that you mention arriving, and PR officials noting that there was good coordination with FEMA, etc. I have no idea whether the response is anywhere near what is needed or what could be offered.
I don’t see the longer term issues being thought about at all. I can’t see how PR and the USVI can endure months without power. How can people earn money – especially with the tourist industry gone? Businesses and people can’t possibly survive that long without $$$ assistance. A lot of people will have to move to the mainland indefinitely.
ETA: PR and its power utility were broke before this happened.

We already do (in a manner of speaking). I’m more concerned about the less-politically-aware who take what the FTFNYT writes as Gospel. It’s not as bad as Faux and their bots, but they’re not as far from Fux as they might think.

Unless there is a specific contractual arrangement to the contrary, which does happen but rarely in special circumstances. In my home town the publisher was a Democrat, and the Democratic publisher undertook to not interfere with the editorial policy of his Republican paper. Perhaps a unique circumstance, and not at all what happens at the FNTY.

Yes, there’s 3 million people without everything in Puerto Rico, and a few tens of thousands in the US Virgin Islands to boot. I haven’t seen news about relief efforts, hope my inclination to expect the worst is all wrong.

I did see that the huge Radio Telescope at Aricibo is perhaps fatally damaged, the antenna fell through the dish during the storm. That’s bad for science, and the researchers who took refuge there.

FEMA-loaded vessels with more than 1.3 million meals, 2 million liters of water, 30 generators and 6,000 cots are en route to St. Thomas, awaiting port opening and clearance. FEMA also pre-positioned commodities at its Distribution Center and Warehouse in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Commodities including meals, water, cots, and blankets are ready for distribution to the Commonwealth as requested.

Since the Reagan days the NYT has gone out of its way to show the RW world that they are not really all that liberal. No matter what they do, the RWers still hate them because they are told to hate them.

But that doesn’t explain the NYT 20+ year campaign to smear the Clintons with bullshit scandals like Whitewater & Emails. There are people there who apparently hate the Clintons, believe the Clintons to be evil, and they no doubt justify their horrible treatment of them as necessary to save the country from them. This is even more bizarre when we consider that the Clintons are not radicals, but generic centrist Democrats with Ivy League pedigrees.

It is strange to me that no one has taken this right to the NYT and demanded answers. Somebody with power ought to have done so prior to letting them slime Hillary for all of 2016. We ordinary people are shushed and shoved to the side by the Maggie Habermans and Lyz Spayds. We are nothing to them.

Then you are missing the New Golden Age of TV, an appellation with which I agree. TV today is vastly better than it’s ever been and completely outshines most of the crap people pay outrageous amounts to see in theaters.

Now, I won’t argue that TV news, especially cable news is total garbage (with a few exceptions). But there are dozens of places to get news and, personally, I want to see what your average, non-political junkie but voting average American sees. So I watch the local news and one network evening newscast, CBS. I’ll check CNN in national emergencies and MSNBC for Rachel and, sometimes, O’Donnell. But TV in general is awesome and I resent the implication that those who so self-righteously proclaim that they never watch it are making about the r st of us. That doesn’t make you a better person and you are cutting off your nose to spite your face because you miss a lot. This is why liberals and lefties can’t have nice things.

@geg6: I only get Fox and ABC and 4 PBS channels but I do watch TV shows using streaming services etc. I always had cable, but then moved to a town with no cable and no internet. I have since moved but just haven’t restarted my cable service. My initial break from cable was out of necessity but now I don’t miss it much.

@Kay: The RW thinking seems to be that HRC is guilty of something, so she was hiding something in those emails. That is, the crime comes first and she frustrated them by hiding the evidence. As far as they’re concerned, there’s no similar starting place for Kushner.

@Kay: “He’s a businessman. This is how incredibly wealthy real estate moguls conduct business. There’s nothing really to this since he was just doing business and didn’t realize politics may be a little different.”

Years ago and in another era — my dad when he was in the Navy took part in the Berlin Airlift. Planes flew from West Germany to Berlin, loaded with food, and coal etc in an unending supply route to West Berlin when Russia cut off all access to the city.

PR deserves this sort of full-scale response. For the shitgibbon to ignore the Island is unforgivable, along with the rest of his racist, misogynist stunts.

The Caribbean islands were hit hard, even the ones not in the direct path of Maria or Irma. We have friends on of the Caribbean islands that Maria thankfully skipped. But even the Tropical storm winds of Maria’s north side knocked out electricity on the island for a week. We are just now getting reports from our friends as Elec and communication lines are being restored.

Meanwhile, PR took a direct hit by Maria — the President could send help as CIC of the military. But that jackass is a racist white guy — who makes all of us cringe in shame. That creep is NOT my President — Hillary Clinton is the People’s President and she is my President. She could go away — but she loves America and she would handle this crisis with empathy and compassion.

Fuck the NYT and the news media. A bunch of useless leeches. (With apologies to biological leeches.)

I’m sort of mildly curious how long Trump, his supporters and political media are planning on carrying on the “lock her up” theme. It was disgusting and unfair during the election- now it’s just ludicrous.

They’re a joke. The President holds rallies where he and his fans chant “lock her up” about a political opponent almost a year past the election. This would be accepted regarding NO OTHER CANDIDATE than Hillary Clinton.

Also, I hate to be a pest but is there some federal law enforcement or regulatory agency that can stop Trump’s low quality, sleazy hires from billing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars for private jets?

Is this just going to continue? These people are going to continue to fly around the country in luxury on our dime?

I object. I want to file a formal complaint. I’m not paying for Kelly Anne Conway’s charter jets.

Nine days after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg dismissed as “crazy” the idea that fake news on his company’s social network played a key role in the U.S. election, President Barack Obama pulled the youthful tech billionaire aside and delivered what he hoped would be a wake-up call.

For months leading up to the vote, Obama and his top aides quietly agonized over how to respond to Russia’s brazen intervention on behalf of the Donald Trump campaign without making matters worse. Weeks after Trump’s surprise victory, some of Obama’s aides looked back with regret and wished they had done more.

Now huddled in a private room on the sidelines of a meeting of world leaders in Lima, Peru, two months before Trump’s inauguration, Obama made a personal appeal to Zuckerberg to take the threat of fake news and political disinformation seriously. Unless Facebook and the government did more to address the threat, Obama warned, it would only get worse in the next presidential race.

Zuckerberg acknowledged the problem posed by fake news. But he told Obama those messages weren’t widespread on Facebook and that there was no easy fix, according to people briefed on the exchange, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of a private conversation.

The conversation on Nov. 19 was a flashpoint in a tumultuous year in which Zuckerberg came to recognize the magnitude of a new threat — a coordinated assault on a U.S. election by a shadowy foreign force that exploited the social network he created.

For months leading up to the vote, Obama and his top aides quietly agonized over how to respond to Russia’s brazen intervention on behalf of the Donald Trump campaign without making matters worse. Weeks after Trump’s surprise victory, some of Obama’s aides looked back with regret and wished they had done more.

@SFAW:
You are absolutely correct. People think if it’s on TV or in the paper it must be true. How do we get that idea changed? That while it may not be government propaganda it is propaganda none the less. faux news and the NYT, along with hundreds of other outlets can say anything they want, act like or even believe it’s true and no one has to be any the wiser. We say constantly that it isn’t true but does it make any difference? No it does not. Propaganda can work to change and shape minds. It’s not fast but it does work. Our media is proof of that.
But I notice that 63 million people didn’t buy it. Maybe, just maybe we can change the system. It’s a long shot but look at what is happening now, the president is a fucking lunatic, a 6 yr old spoiled brat in a 99 cent suit with bad hair and a far worse character. The nazis are coming out in the open, not sitting in their moms basement, and they are getting exposed. They walk around with nazi arm bands and people walk up and knock them out. I’m not inciting violence, the people with nazi arm bands are. The koch bros are losing in congress, because average citizens are calling, faxing writing and telling those bought and paid for assholes in congress are finding out that people really don’t like them and plan on voting for someone, anyone else if they keep up being their slimy douchebag selves. Will we win? Anyone’s guess, mine included.

the huge Radio Telescope at Aricibo is perhaps fatally damaged, the antenna fell through the dish during the storm

From what I’ve read the suspended antenna platform didn’t come down, but one of the two antennas on the “banana arm” underneath broke off and did some damage to the dish. The one that failed is the lower frequency ‘pole’ antenna on the left in this image.

@Elizabelle: Facebook also played a role in the German election today. The ultra rightwing “Alternative for Germany” party came in third with 13.5% percent of the vote, ahead of the Greens, the left party, and the business-oriented Free Democrats. AfD credits its success to help from the Russians, who pushed numerous memes and fake news stories on Facebook and twitter. Russian interference is now global.

@geg6:
I can see any amount of news on the internet. I don’t have TV because my last one broke and as I was in the same condition I couldn’t purchase another one. I also didn’t have cable available where I was living, hard as that is to believe. I’ve come to like the peacefulness of not being bombarded with stories that really don’t mean shit to anyone. I have netflix and amazon prime to watch shows and movies when I want.
And I am keeping up with information. What would you like to know?

@OldDave:
Also if the pole to house wiring is out no amount of generator is going to make any difference. How many hospitals does PR have left? That and food kitchens seem to be the biggest needs for electrical power immediately.

People think if it’s on TV or in the paper it must be true. How do we get that idea changed?

Sorry, but I have to disagree. Or, rather, I’d suggest a modification. (To follow in a moment.) But I would respectfully suggest that it’s certain propaganda-like “news” outlets which are causing the problems. How many times have we heard that certain segments don’t believe the “news” unless they get it from certain “sources.” Although far too many of those persons are a combination of fucking stupid, fucking insane, and fucking evil, I’m thinking that a bigger problem is that they also infect the “herd.” (Using a “herd immunity” analogy here.) Yeah, I might be wrong about that, but there seems to be enough anecdotal evidence that formerly-rational persons have gone around the bend after being subjected to Alex Jones, Fux, Sinclair, etc., for an extended period of time. In any event, the goal is to have the “legit” news outlets perceived as correct/accurate/honest, not have people move away from them.

I don’t have it completely worked out how to fix it, but I’ve toyed with the idea of Fux somehow being declared as Pravda-in-the-USA, rather than maintain its designation as the press. Of course, I see significant problems with that approach — if we declare Fux to be non-press, where does it stop? Ignoring the First Amendment, or trying to tailor it to a particular viewpoint — no matter how rational, and no matter how batshit insane the other side is — will not work out well in the long run.

Maybe, like Carl Spackler, I will receive total consciousness, courtesy of Phil Silvers the Dalai Lama, and will come up with a solution, but it seems unlikely.

This notion is terminally annoying on my mind because the vulgar talking yam that ascended to the presidency DOES NOT communicate ideas, policy or any coherent commentary whatsoever.

He spews impulses, dispositions and demagogic energy with the aplomb of a tumbling honey bear toward a wayward hiker in the woods trying to escape its wrath. Its untenable & unbelievable that people believe Trump won because Hillary or any of the 10,000 Republican candidates ran terrible campaigns; it was because we the electorate (collectively) lowered the standards to the Earth’s core for the highest office in the known universe despite the greatest popular vote difference against the winning president-elect in our nation’s history. Its an absolute travesty that the media and so many complicit others decided to double down on the superficial instead of the substantially sustaining political issues that remain unresolved and are in every way worse by the presence of a Trump/Pence administration. I just literally can’t so me days even watch T.V. or consume any news source because their mere presence is supremely suffocating!

@SFAW:
Well….. I do think we are talking past each other. faux is the worst, no question, but I see all the news outlets and most newspapers going along for the ride with similar styles and the same stories. BS is not wrong, big wealth is a big part of the problem. He has no way to solve any of this though. You are right racists aren’t born, they are created. People aren’t born scared they are created. Crafting all the news for the generation that has watching TV as it’s birthright was a brilliant idea. Brilliantly evil that is. (That’s my generation BTW) How to fix it? How did it go wrong? Reverse that. If you can.
We are at a crossroads in our country. We can let the bigots win or we can win. It won’t be easy but it is doable, I think. We need a national discussion about bigotry, about the American original sin. Good luck getting the bigot in charge to go for that. Could we get a major media outlet to go along and do it? Rather doubtful, who would that be? Professional sports? We have an opening.
We have the concept of free speech along with the concept of nearly unlimited capitalism and I think that is a major issue. We can’t and don’t want to change the free speech part of that but we can change the unlimited capitalism part. Which may actually be more difficult because we are going to need to be in charge in congress and the WH for this to happen. It wouldn’t hurt if we had the SC either. Don’t get me wrong we won’t cure bigotry in any way by getting rid of unlimited capitalism but we may then be able to work on it a lot better. OTOH, if drumpf and congress keep going along the way they are, and I don’t expect any different, we may have enough people on our side to make all of that work. A boy can hope.

The emails showing DNC corruption are the ones most damning (and least mentioned). Trump was Team Hillary’s Pied Piper. She played chicken with the fate of the nation in her pursuit of power. The MSM should absolutely go after Team Trump for the same abuses she committed.

@Kay: If I remember right, in the Executive Branch there is an Inspector General for each cabinet department who can initiate investigations, such as into Price’s overuse of private jets. But I think there isn’t an Inspector General with a White House beat.

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